<Begin Segment 22>

MN: Let me change the subject on you and then ask about your two brothers in Japan again. Because you went to visit them when you were fifty. When you went to Japan, did you visit your mother's grave also?

YY: Yes, I did.

MN: What was that like?

YY: It was a hilly place. I got up there, and he was buried in the middle, and his second wife was on one side and my mother was on the other side in Okayama.

MN: And it was because of the cancer that you went to Japan. What advice would you give to other women who are, who may be struggling through breast cancer?

YY: Well, I always had a positive attitude, but the thing is, it never went into my lymph nodes, that's why I didn't have chemo. So I was very fortunate. But every time I had pain in my other breast, I'd get panicky, I'd think, "Oh, my gosh." Because I had two kinds of cancer, the regular and it was lobular. It doesn't show up on the x-rays. So I was thinking it might be on the other side, too, but so far I'm still here, so I figure I've been very fortunate. There must be a purpose for me to be here yet. Taking care of my husband, I guess. [Laughs]

MN: Now, going back to your camp experience, have you visited Santa Anita or Heart Mountain since the war?

YY: No.

MN: And why not?

YY: Well, I had no desire because I couldn't. Because we weren't, we didn't have money, it was always a struggle for a while there.

MN: But last year they had that huge grand opening at Heart Mountain.

YY: No, but see, I had my husband, and I had the cat, and I had... I just can't ask people to do things. So I just, I let J.K. do all that stuff, he goes whenever he can, he goes all over.

<End Segment 22> - Copyright © 2012 Densho. All Rights Reserved.